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By Root 468 0

drooped, hung. Then, with an immense effort, she got her chin up again. For a moment her gimlet gaze met Steve's. 'Who the fuck're you?' she asked in a clear, perfectly understandable voice, then slid forward on her face. The top of her head came to rest inches from the heels of Peter, the man who had lost his wife. Jackson, Steve thought suddenly. That's his last name, Jackson. Peter Jackson was still turned to the wall with his face clutched in his hands. If he takes a step backward, Steve thought, he'll trip over her.

'Fuck a duck,' the cop said in a low, amazed voice. Then he looked down and realized he was still holding the woman's arm. He walked stiffly toward the kitchen with it held out in front of him. The sound of rain hissing down seemed very loud in Steve's ears.

'Come on,' the old party said, rousing himself. 'We're not done yet. Get that belt on her, son. Buckle in toward the breast. You game?'

'I guess,' Steve said, but he was very relieved when Cynthia the counter-girl picked the belt up and then knelt beside the unconscious woman with it in her hands.

From 'The Force Corridor', Episode 55 of MotoKops 2200, original teleplay by Allen Smithee

ACT 2

FADE IN ON:

INT. CRISIS CENTER, MOTOKOPS' HQ

The room is dominated, as always, by the huge Situscreen. Standing before it on a floatpad is COLONEL HENRY, looking grave. Sitting at the horseshoe-shaped Crisis Desk are the rest of the MotoKops squad: SNAKE HUNTER, BOUNTY, MAJOR PIKE, ROOTY, and CASSIE.

On the Situscreen we see a SPACE VIEW. In the distance is Earth, just a blue-green coin at this distance. It looks peaceful enough.

SNAKE HUNTER (with customary scorn)

So what's the big deal? I don't see anything that looks very — What the — ??!!

Suddenly the FORCE CORRIDOR appears on the Situscreen, almost filling it, blotting out the stars on either side. It's like watching the arrival of Darth Vader's dreadnought at the beginning of the first Star Wars movie; in a word, awesome!

The CORRIDORconsists of two long metal plates with big square protrusions sticking out at intervals. The CORRIDOR HUMS OMINOUSLY, and BLUE FIRE CRACKLES from side to side between the square protrusions.

CASSIE STYLES gasps, looks at the Situscreen with dismay. COLONEL HENRY pushes a button on his hand-control, and the screen goes into FREEZE MODE. We can still see Earth, but with the corridor on either side, it looks caught in a potentially lethal WEB OF ELECTRICITY!

COLONEL HENRY (to SNAKE HUNTER)

That's the big deal! The Force Corridor, artifact of a long-vanished alien race! Destructive . . . and headed directly toward Earth!

CASSIE (dismay)

Oh, gosh!

COLONEL HENRY

Relax, Cassie — it's still over 150,000 light-years away. This is a composite shot.

MAJOR PIKE

Yeah, but how fast is it moving?

COLONEL HENRY

That's the problem. Let's just say that if we don't resolve this crisis in the next seventy-two hours, I think you can cancel your weekend plans.

ROOTY

Root-root-root-root!

SNAKE HUNTER

Shutup, Rooty. (to COLONEL HENRY) So what's our plan?

COLONEL HENRY takes the floatpad further up, so he can use his highlighter to circle a couple of the protrusions on the inner sides of the corridor.

COLONEL HENRY

Drone telemetry reports that the Force Corridor itself is over 200,000 miles long and 50,000 miles wide, a hallway of death in which nothing can live! But it may have a weakness! I think these square shapes are power-generators. If we could knock 'em out —

BOUNTY

Are we talkin' Power Wagon assault, boss?

We move in on COLONEL HENRY'S grim face.

COLONEL HENRY

It's Earth's only chance.

INT. CRISIS DESK, WITH THE MOTOKOPS

SNAKE HUNTER

A deep space Power Wagon assault? Could be a quick trip to that Boot Hill in the sky!

ROOTY

Root-root-root-root!

ALL

Shut up, Rooty!

INT. A HALLWAY IN THE CRISIS CENTER

COLONEL HENRY and CASSIE STYLES are in the lead, the other MotoKops behind them. ROOTY, as usual, is bumbling along